The director of the Hoboken Parking Utility, who is a figure in the investigation of at least $582,352 in missing revenues, is no stranger to lengthy and intensive probes.

In 1993, John Corea was permanently barred from working at the New York Stock Exchange for trading so improper, one NYSE official called it "egregious."

In 2004, he was hired to head the HPA, and "very briefly mentioned that when he was a young man, well over a decade before, he had some administrative issues arising from his employment as a stockbroker," Hoboken Mayor David Roberts said in a written statement.

An NYSE investigation concluded that in 1990 Corea, who worked as a stockbroker at the time, purchased shares numerous times by pretending they were for a company that didn't authorize the trades. In such cases, traders normally buy the shares for themselves. But Corea refused to do so, and in an act nearly unheard of, he "walked off" the Exchange floor, leaving the firm with a loss of $656,632, said Steve Brostoff, vice president of the NYSE's Regulations Division of Enforcement.

Corea was disqualified as a member of the NYSE, but the next summer Corea pretended to be an employee of another firm and continued to enter trade orders.

After a long investigation, with which Corea failed to cooperate, Corea received a punishment of "censure and permanent bar," which means that no member of the NYSE could hire him in any capacity. In the decision, hearing officer Vincent Murphy wrote that "Mr. Corea's conduct was so far removed from the standard of conduct ... that no lesser penalty would be appropriate."

"Members rarely act that inappropriately," said Steve Brostoff, vice president of the NYSE's Regulations Division of Enforcement. "He tried to cover it up, and then he just walked off. That's egregious conduct."

He added, "You cannot have somebody like that in the industry."

Corea declined to comment, but his attorney, Frank Cutruzzula, said it was an employee of Corea's that engaged in the improper behavior, which Cutruzzula called a "clerical error." He said Corea didn't defend himself during the investigation because "He didn't want to spend the time and money fighting for something he didn't have a defense for."

But Brostoff said there was no way the transactions were an error. "He did it 12 times, it couldn't be a mistake," he said, adding, "I don't understand how he thought he was going to get away with it."

Roberts also said in his statement that Corea "assured us that these issues had long since been resolved and promised to bring an innovative, business-oriented approach to his work. The record shows that since then, HPU revenues have substantially increased."

Meanwhile, Cutruzzula insists Corea played no role in the missing money at the utility, which is being investigated by the state Attorney General's Office and the city.

"He has done nothing wrong here," Cutruzzula said, "and that will be borne out by a complete investigation."

Last October, the city learned that UTF owed Hoboken at least $582,352 in revenues. UTF paid Hoboken in full by the end of last year, but didn't pay interest on the amount, said Hoboken Corporation Counsel Steve Kleinman. A few months later the city terminated its contract with UTF and now collects the money itself.

Kleinman declined to say whether more funds were missing, but did say that "civil litigation is a very real possibility."